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Zach Reks Signs With KBO’s Lotte Giants

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Outfielder Zach Reks, whom the Rangers designated for assignment Saturday, is signing with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants for the remainder of the season, per an announcement from the Giants (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). The Rangers didn’t formally announce the move, but Reks was released yesterday following that DFA, per his transaction log at MLB.com, paving the way for him to take this new opportunity overseas. He’ll earn $310K for the remainder of the season.

The 28-year-old Reks has seen brief big league action between the Dodgers (10 plate appearances) and Rangers (34 plate appearances) over the past two seasons. He’s hit just .205/.205/.227 in that small sample, but the former 10th-round pick has obliterated Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .331/.421/.579 batting line in 140 plate appearances this season. Overall, he’s a .290/.388/.537 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons, making it at least a bit of a surprise that he never got an earnest look in either Texas or Los Angeles (or with another organization).

Reks, coincidentally, will be replacing an outfielder with a fairly similar career arc. He and DJ Peters were both Dodgers draftees — twice teammates in Triple-A Oklahoma City — who made their way to the Rangers after being designated for assignment in Los Angeles. Both received larger but still relatively brief looks in Texas before ultimately landing with Lotte in the KBO. Peters was just waived earlier this week after struggling through his KBO debut, and Reks will hope for better results than his former teammate enjoyed.

A strong couple months in the KBO isn’t likely to put Reks back on the immediate MLB radar, but it could potentially open additional opportunities with the Giants or another team in the KBO. Should he fare well in multiple KBO campaigns, it’s always possible he could follow the paths of Eric Thames, Darin Ruf and others who’ve broken in out in South Korea following nondescript MLB tenures and make his way back to the big leagues down the road. Reks will play all of the 2023 season at age 29, so there’s still ample time for him to either make that loop or to more simply carve out a lucrative multi-year career in the KBO if he plays to expectations there.

Rangers, Kumar Rocker Agree To Terms

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The Rangers and No. 3 overall draft pick Kumar Rocker have agreed to terms on a $5.2MM bonus, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The right-hander’s bonus clocks in well south of the pick’s $7,587,600 slot value, which should afford the Rangers flexibility further down their board. Rocker is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Rocker was the No. 10 overall pick by the Mets a year ago and was reportedly set to ink a $6MM bonus before medical concerns scuttled that deal. He’d eventually go on to have an arthroscopic procedure on his right shoulder last August. Rather than returning to Vanderbilt for his senior season, Rocker instead opted to pitch for the Tri-City Valley Cats of the independent Frontier League (an official partner league of MLB). Health hasn’t looked to be an issue at all for Rocker this time year; he’s pitched 20 innings for the Valley Cats and turned in a 1.35 ERA with a dominant 32-to-4 K/BB ratio while reportedly running his heater back up to 99 mph.

The selection by the Rangers improbably reunites Vanderbilt’s 2021 co-aces, as Texas took right-hander Jack Leiter with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft just last season. Leiter and Rocker were widely viewed as two of the top arms in last year’s draft — evidenced by their top-ten selections — and will now give the Rangers a pair of high-ceiling arms upon which to build. (Leiter certainly seems pleased with the Rangers’ selection, celebrating the pick with a pair of tweets last night.)

Rocker, 22, starred alongside Leiter for the entirety of his three years at Vanderbilt, pitching to a 2.89 ERA with a 33.2% strikeout rate and a 7.8% walk rate in 236 1/3 innings for the Commodores in a tough SEC setting. The 6’5″, 245-pound righty has an upper-90s heater, and scouting reports from Baseball America, The Athletic, ESPN, MLB.com and FanGraphs credit him with a slider that draws 60 to 70 grades on the 20-80 scale. Rocker has also worked with a curveball and changeup, both drawing at least average ratings in most reports.

While Rocker was one of the most recognizable names in this year’s draft, his selection at No. 3 overall nonetheless registered as a draft-night surprise. Most rankings had him as a late first-rounder or even in the second round, considering last summer’s shoulder surgery and some oft-cited inconsistency in his stuff at Vanderbilt. The Rangers were clearly heartened by Rocker’s strong showing in the Frontier League, and they’ll also now have the option to use the savings on their No. 3 selection to scoop up some lingering, hard-to-sign talents who remain on the board.

Despite picking at No. 3, Texas entered the draft with just the 14th-largest bonus pool — a reflection of the fact that they surrendered their second- and third-round picks (and the associated bonus pool allotments) to sign free agents Corey Seager and Marcus Semien this past winter. Because of those forfeitures, Rocker remains the only selection Texas has made thus far. The Rangers’ next pick will come in Round 4, and there are still a few highly regarded high school options on the board, headlined by Clemson-committed righty Brock Porter, who’s regarded as a first-round talent but was not selected on Day 1 of the draft.

Rangers Activate Jonathan Hernandez, Designate Zach Reks For Assignment

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The Rangers have activated Jonathan Hernandez from the 60-day injured list, per the team. To create space on the 40-man roster, outfielder Zach Reks was designated for assignment. To create space on the active roster, A.J. Alexy was optioned to Triple-A.

Hernandez, 26, underwent Tommy John surgery on April 12, 2021. He returns now for his first action since going under the knife. At the time of the surgery, Hernandez was coming off a solid 2020 in which he appeared 27 times out of the bullpen while posting a 2.90 ERA/3.19 FIP across 31 innings with a 31-to-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He made 16 appearances in Triple-A while rehabbing this season, registering a 3.60 ERA over 15 innings.

The Rangers will now have a week to trade, release, or outright Reks. The 28-year-old Chicago native stepped to the plate 34 times this season without taking a free pass, going 9-for-34 with 10 strikeouts. The Rangers originally purchased Reks’ contract from the Dodgers last November.

Rangers, Martin Perez Have Mutual Interest In Extension

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Martin Perez emphatically told reporters late last month that he hoped to stay with the Rangers long-term (link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News), and general manager Chris Young told Grant and others yesterday that the team is indeed open to the possibility of signing the veteran lefty to an extension (Twitter link).

Perez, who returned for a second stint with the Rangers on a one-year, $4MM deal over the winter, appears to be in the midst of the breakout season so many thought possible during his minor league days, when he was regarded as one of the top 30 prospects in all of baseball. It’s coming well later than anyone expected, at 31 years of age, but Perez has pitched to a brilliant 2.68 ERA with a career-high 20.7% strikeout rate, a career-low 6.6% walk rate and a 51.9% ground-ball rate that represents his highest mark since 2016.

Now an 11-year Major League veteran, Perez is throwing fewer four-seam fastballs than at any point in his career (6.6%) and has ramped up the usage of his sinker (37%) and changeup (27.7%) in its place. That changeup usage rate is a career-high, and his sinker usage is at its highest point since 2018. He’s also tamped down the use of the cutter he added with the Twins in 2019 but is still using it frequently as a third offering. His curveball, like his four-seamer, only makes a handful of appearances per start (5.1%). Perez has experimented with many pitch mixes throughout his career, but this is the most aggressively he’s ever leaned on the sinker/cutter/changeup trio, and the results are impressive.

The extent to which the Rangers are willing to spend to keep Perez beyond the current season isn’t yet known, but Perez made his feelings crystal clear in that late June interview, telling the Texas beat: “I want to be here and stay here, 100 percent. No — make it 300 percent.”

As things currently stand, righties Jon Gray and Dane Dunning are the only locks for the rotation beyond the current season. Texas is hopeful that touted prospects Jack Leiter and Cole Winn will emerge as high-end options sooner than later, but both have struggled considerably in the minors this season (Leiter in Double-A, Winn in Triple-A). Even if that pair were to right the ship and break through to the big leagues sometime in 2023, there’d still be room for a solid veteran of Perez’s caliber — and that’s obviously a best-case scenario that’s far from certain, given the volatility of pitching prospects.

Whether it’s a Perez extension or a trade that brings some controllable talent to Globe Life Field, Young expressed yesterday that the Rangers may not wait until the offseason to help solidify the 2023 rotation (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Levi Weaver). “I think that as we are building this and evaluating where we currently sit in the standings, and where we want to be this time next year, finding pieces both for the short term and potential fits beyond 2022 is how we’re approaching it,” Young said of the Rangers’ approach to the trade deadline.

The Rangers are currently five games below .500 at 41-46, which takes them completely out of the running in the American League West, where they trail the Astros by a massive 16.5-game deficit. They’re only four and a half back in the race for the American League’s third Wild Card spot, however, and Texas has played considerably better since a terrible start to the season. Following a 2-9 start to the season, they’ve gone 39-37 with a +25 run differential in that span.

List Of Home Run Derby Contestants

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July 14: Rangers shortstop Corey Seager will return to Dodger Stadium as the final Derby participant, Texas announced. Seager, who was also named to the American League All-Star team this afternoon as an injury replacement, has hit 21 homers on the season. He also appeared in the 2016 Home Run Derby.

July 13, 6:25pm: Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez will also participate, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (on Twitter). Ramirez has never participated in the Derby before, but he’ll join the event amidst a 17-homer season. Like Rodriguez, he’ll be part of the American League All-Star team the following night.

July 13, 3:50pm: Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez announced on social media that he will be joining the contest. As a rookie, this will naturally be his first appearance in the derby.

July 12: Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber has joined the field, with Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer relaying that he himself posted about it on Instagram.

July 11, 9:21pm: Nationals star Juan Soto will also participate. The Talk Nats blog first reported (on Twitter) that Soto would accept an invitation if offered and Héctor Gómez of Z101 confirmed he’d be in the event. Soto, who was a part of last year’s event, has hit 17 longballs on the season. He’ll also be part of the NL All-Star Team the following night.

7:06pm: The 2022 Home Run Derby will take place next Monday, and the field is beginning to take shape. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. each announced this afternoon that they’d be participating, while Katie Woo of the Athletic reports that Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols will partake as well.

Pujols’ participation is the most surprising (and notable) of the three. He’s a four-time contestant but hasn’t appeared in a Derby in more than a decade. He’s only hit five longballs this year but twice led the National League during his first stint in St. Louis and is fifth all-time in homers. In his final big league season, Pujols is already set to head to the All-Star Game in recognition of his career. He’ll add the Derby to the celebration.

Alonso is hoping to defend his two straight titles. The New York slugger won in 2019, then backed that up with another championship last year. (The 2020 Derby was canceled). Along the way, he knocked off Acuña in the semifinals during the 2019 event. Atlanta’s star outfielder will join the festivities for a second time. Both Alonso and Acuña will team with Pujols on the NL All-Stars; Alonso is a reserve, while Acuña will be in Brian Snitker’s starting lineup.

Rangers To Select Elier Hernandez

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The Rangers are set to select the contract of outfielder Elier Hernandez from Triple-A Round Rock, as first reported by Hector Gomez of Z101 Sports (Twitter link). The 27-year-old will be making his Major League debut when he gets into a game for the first time.

Signed by the Royals for a $3.05MM bonus back in 2011, a then-16-year-old Hernandez was considered at the time to be one of the top prospects on that summer’s international class of amateur free agents — if not the top prospect. At the time of his signing, that $3.05MM bonus was the largest any team had ever given to an international amateur outfielder, but through parts of eight seasons in the Kansas City organization, Hernandez never developed as hoped.

Baseball America ranked Hernandez among the Royals’ top 30 prospects each season from 2012-18, topping out at No. 11 in 2014. It took Hernandez seven years to reach the Triple-A level, and the offensive numbers he posted along the way were generally below average. He continued to struggle with the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha through the 2019 season, posting a combined OPS south of .700 in 152 games there over the course of two campaigns.

Hernandez, now in his second season with the Rangers organization, looks to finally be tapping into that dormant potential. Though his 2021 numbers between Double-A and Triple-A were a continuation of his pedestrian production in the Royals’ system, he’s broken out with a .295/.364/.546 slash through 234 plate appearances with Round Rock in 2022. He’s connected on 11 homers and doubles alike, adding in four triples, nine stolen bases (in 11 tries) and some of the best walk and strikeout rates of his career (8.7% and 19.5%, respectively).

As  Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out, the Rangers are set to face multiple left-handed starters in this weekend’s series against the Mariners, so Hernandez will give them a right-handed stick to play matchups. Texas already has an open spot on the 40-man roster after moving Mitch Garver to the 60-day injured list earlier in the week, and it seems Hernandez will be the yet-unannounced corresponding move accompanying that shift. As such, they’ll only need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move to accommodate Hernandez’s ascent to the Majors.

That said, Grant adds that righty reliever Jonathan Hernandez, who’s been out all season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, is expected to be activated at some point this weekend, so the Rangers will likely need to make an additional 40-man transaction in the coming days.

Injured List Transactions: Sale, Jansen, Garver

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The Red Sox reinstated Chris Sale to make his season debut tonight against the Rays, as had been reported last week. The veteran southpaw missed the first few months of the year after he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his rib during Spring Training. It’s the third straight injury-impacted season for Sale, who missed all of 2020 and the bulk of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery. His return is a necessary welcome development for a Boston club that has five starting pitching options (Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill, Garrett Whitlock and Connor Seabold) on the 15-day injured list at the moment.

Boston optioned rookie right-hander Brayan Bello to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding active roster move. The 23-year-old, who’s one of the best pitching prospects in the organization, was promoted last week and made his first two big league starts. Bello surrendered nine runs with seven strikeouts and six walks in eight innings, however, so the club will send him back to the minors for a bit. A 40-man roster vacancy for Sale was created yesterday when catcher Kevin Plawecki landed on the COVID-19 injured list, but Boston will need to make another move in that regard once Plawecki is cleared to return.

Updates on a pair of other notable injury moves:

  • The Blue Jays welcomed back catcher Danny Jansen from the 10-day injured list, installing him right into tonight’s starting lineup against the Phillies. The 27-year-old missed a month after fracturing a finger on his left hand, his second notable injury of the season. That and an April oblique strain have limited Jansen to just 19 games thus far, but he’s blasted seven home runs in limited action. In a corresponding active roster move, top prospect Gabriel Moreno was optioned back to Triple-A Buffalo. A consensus top prospect, Moreno was promoted for his MLB debut shortly after Jansen went down. The 22-year-old only collected one extra-base hit (a double) in his first 60 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, though. With Jansen back and the Jays firmly in win-now mode, they’ll turn back to the veteran while giving Moreno regular reps in Triple-A. Across 36 games with the Bisons, Moreno is hitting .324/.380/.404.
  • Last night, the Rangers transferred catcher/designated hitter Mitch Garver from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. That’s not a surprise, as he’ll miss the rest of the season after undergoing season-ending surgery to repair the injured flexor tendon in his forearm. The move freed a spot on Texas’ 40-man roster, which Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News suggests (on Twitter) is likely to go to reliever Jonathan Hernández. The right-hander hasn’t pitched in the majors since undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2021, but he’s been on a rehab stint at Triple-A Round Rock for the past month and a half. Grant notes that his allotted rehab window wraps up tomorrow, meaning he’ll have to be reinstated from the 60-day IL or shut down from his rehab entirely. The former seems likelier, as manager Chris Woodward suggested Hernández should be back with the big league club soon.

Matt Moore’s Bullpen Rebound

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To call Matt Moore’s career a roller coaster would be to undersell the peaks and valleys that have proliferated his time in professional baseball. An eighth-round pick by the Rays back in 2007, Moore skyrocketed through the minors (relative to most  high school arms), debuting in a September playoff push in 2011. The second start of Moore’s career was a scoreless, seven-inning ALDS gem against the same club for which he now pitches back in that 2011 season. In the 2011-12 offseason, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus ranked Moore as the game’s No. 1 prospect — ahead of a pair of outfield prospects by the name of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. Baseball America ranked him second — behind Harper and ahead of Trout.

Early in his career, Moore largely delivered on those lofty prospect rankings. He wasn’t an immediate Cy Young favorite but nevertheless pitched to a 3.53 ERA over the course of his first 347 big league innings. Moore struck out 22.8% of his opponents during that span — a below-average mark in today’s game but well above the league-average of 19.4% from 2011-13. Moore made the All-Star team in 2013, pitched to a 3.29 ERA over 27 starts, and grabbed a few down-ballot Cy Young votes, finishing ninth.

Matt Moore | Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Tommy John surgery early in the 2014 season, however, would wipe out the majority of Moore’s 2014-15 campaigns. He made just two starts in 2014 before hitting the injured list due to ligament damage in his pitching elbow, and Moore was limited to 12 mostly ugly starts upon returning in 2015. His fastball, which averaged 96 mph in his electric rookie showing, averaged 92.7 mph over those dozen appearances.

Moore briefly looked to be back on track in 2016. Traded from Tampa Bay to San Francisco in July, he posted an identical 4.08 ERA with both teams en route to 198 1/3 innings. At the very least, he looked like a league-average starter, but Moore unraveled with the Giants in 2017 (5.52 ERA in 31 starts) and posted an ERA just under 7.00 in 102 innings with the 2018 Rangers. He made just two starts for the 2019 Tigers before sustaining a season-ending knee injury while fielding a ground-ball. Moore parlayed a strong 2020 showing with Japan’s SoftBank Hawks into a big league deal with the Phillies heading into the 2021 season, but he logged a 6.29 ERA in 73 innings last season in Philly.

Unsurprisingly, given that tumultuous run from 2017-21, Moore settled on a minor league deal this past winter — returning for a second stint with the Rangers. So far, it’s proven to be one of the best minor league fliers any team took over the winter.

This marks the first time in Moore’s career that he’s been used exclusively as a reliever, and the results been excellent. He’s sporting a 1.88 ERA with a strong 26.6% strikeout rate, a career-best 54.9% ground-ball rate and a 94.4 mph average fastball velocity that represents his highest level since his pre-Tommy John days in 2012.

Moore is throwing that heater at a career-low 42.3% mark so far in 2022. As we’ve seen so often with pitchers — particularly when they move to short-relief stints — he’s found success by ramping up the usage of his secondary offerings. Moore’s curveball is actually his primary pitch so far in 2022, as he’s thrown the pitch at a 44.3% clip that is far and away the highest of his career. He’s mixing in his changeup (13.5%), giving him a third pitch that helps keep righties at bay. (Just three of his 86 changeups this year have been thrown to lefties.) Gone is the cutter he threw at a 9% clip from 2014-21. The sinker he featured briefly from 2012-16 has also been scrapped. All three of Moore’s current pitches have been positives, per FanGraphs’ run values.

Moore’s Statcast profile is quite favorable, too, lending some further weight to his bullpen breakout. He’s in the 73rd percentile of big league pitchers in terms of whiff rate and the 79th when it comes to inducing chases off the plate. Moore ranks in the 85th percentile or better in fastball spin rate, barrel rate, hard-hit rate and in each of his “expected” ERA, opponents’ batting average, slugging percentage and wOBA. Put more simply: Moore is missing bats, and when he does allow contact, it’s generally weak.

It’s not all roses, of course. There’s no denying that Moore has still yielded far too many free passes in 2022 (13.9% walk rate), and while he’s begun to slightly scale back the rate at which he issues those walks, no one’s going to claim that he has above-average (or even average) command right now. Moore also hasn’t allowed a home run this season. That’s obviously a good thing — but it’s also a trend that no pitcher is likely to sustain over the course of a full season. Even if the bulk of contact against a pitcher is weak, hitters are generally going to barrel up a mistake and make them pay on occasion.

Few relievers check all the boxes though, and generally those that can sustain plus strikeout rates with plus command and ground-ball tendencies while also limiting hard contact and home runs are among the highest-paid pitchers in the game. Those types of relievers are rarely available at the trade deadline. Moore, however, should be available — and he has the strikeout, ground-ball and weak contact tendencies that teams tend to covet, even if they’re accompanied by at-times spotty command.

Beyond the impressive showing in his first foray into full-time relief work, the southpaw is also eminently affordable. Moore’s minor league deal over the winter came with a $2.5MM base salary. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end, so he’s a pure rental, but he’d only cost his new club about $1.17MM through season’s end as of this writing. That number, of course, will continue to tick downward as the Aug. 2 deadline approaches.

The Rangers find themselves within striking distance of the newly created third Wild Card spot in the American League, and their offseason blockbuster signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were a clear indication that they’re aiming for a return to relevance in the AL West. But teams in this era of baseball are rarely strict buyers or sellers at the deadline. It’s certainly possible for the Rangers to continue exploring deals that might net them controllable big leaguers while also shipping short-term assets like Moore to more clear-cut postseason contenders to stockpile a bit more future value.

If Moore can net a decent prospect — and given how he’s pitched, there’s reason to think he should — trading him while still pursuing controllable, MLB-ready help in the outfield and starting rotation would represent a sensible means of toeing the buyer/seller line for a Rangers club that isn’t quite a surefire contender yet.

Yankees Interested In Andrew Benintendi, David Peralta

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5:18PM: The Yankees have also been scouting Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes, with Nightengale describing Peralta as a “fallback option” if Benintendi isn’t acquired.  Peralta is also a free agent after the season, and is hitting .245/.312/.460 with 11 home runs through 263 PA.

9:13AM: The Yankees and Royals have recently held talks around a trade that would send outfielder Andrew Benintendi to the Bronx, according to a report from Jon Heyman and Dan Martin of the New York Post. They add that the Yanks are simultaneously trying to work out a separate trade that would send outfielder Joey Gallo out of town.

Benintendi is one of the more obvious trade candidates, and this isn’t the first time his name has popped up in rumors. Since he’s having a good year on a noncompetitive team and is set to reach free agency at season’s end, everything seems to be lining up for a deal between now and the August 2 deadline. As such, MLBTR recently placed him #2 on our list of trade candidates. Back in June, it was reported that the Royals were actively seeking a buyer for the outfielder, with the Blue Jays reportedly showing interest.

The Yankees have been the best team in baseball this year and are therefore the most obvious of deadline buyers. As a team with a 61-24 record, they don’t have many holes, but one area they seem to be interesting in improving is the outfield, by swapping in Benintendi or some other deadline acquisition for Gallo. Reports from earlier this month indicated the Yankees were looking to upgrade on Gallo in some way.

The fact that Gallo has been a disappointment in the Bronx is well-known to Yankee fans, as his production has cratered since coming over from the Rangers in a deal last year. Prior to the deal, Gallo was well-established as one of baseball’s most fearsome sluggers. In the four full season from 2017 to 2021, Gallo put up 38 home runs or more in three of them. In 2019, he was limited to 70 games but still hit 22 long balls. His wRC+ was between 108 and 144 in each of those four seasons, indicating he was between 8% and 44% better than league average. 2020 was a disappointing campaign but under the strange circumstances of the pandemic season, and he seemed to bounce right back in 2021. In his time with the Rangers last year, he hit 25 home runs in 95 games and was slashing .233/.379/.490 for a wRC+ of 139. After the deal, though, he hit just .160/.303/.404, 95 wRC+. That’s carried over into this season, as he’s hitting .166/.288/.341 on the year, producing a wRC+ of just 84. After almost a year of subpar production, it seems the Yanks are willing to move on. MLBTR placed Gallo at #39 on the aforementioned list of trade candidates.

Benintendi is having a much better season than Gallo, though in a very different style. In contrast to Gallo’s high-powered, high-strikeout approach, Benintendi would bring a more contact-oriented profile. His 14.2% strikeout rate is well below the 22.2% league average and far lower than the 38.3% rate Gallo has on the year. However, he’s hit just three homers on the season, compared to Gallo’s ten. All told, Benintendi is slashing .317/.387/.402 for a wRC+ of 128, a significant upgrade on Gallo’s 84.

Salary wise, swapping in Benintendi for Gallo wouldn’t make a huge difference for the Yanks. Both players are impending free agents, with Benintendi making $8.5MM and Gallo $10.275MM. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource calculates the Yankees’ CBT number to be $262MM at the moment, placing them beyond the $250MM second threshold but shy of the $270MM third threshold.

The Royals will have no interest in Gallo, of course. As a rebuilding team currently sporting a 31-52 record, they will be looking for long-term assets, either prospects or perhaps players recently reaching the majors. That leaves the Yankees to figure out who wants to take a shot on Gallo and hope for a bounceback. If a team wanted to convince themselves that Gallo was due for a turnaround, they could perhaps look at his HR/FB rate. It’s 17.5% this year, well below his career rate of 27% and his single-season career high of 37.3% in 2019. However, his Statcast page is a real mixed bag, with Gallo still capable of hitting the ball very hard, though not with enough frequency. His max exit velocity is in the 90th percentile, but his average exit velocity is just in the 40th. Any team acquiring him would have to hope for a bit more consistency, with that average exit velocity ticking up from this year’s 88.6 mph towards the 93-95 mph range of his better seasons.

The report from Heyman and Martin suggests the Yankees’ best bet would be teams run by his former bosses in Texas. There’s the Rangers themselves, who are within four games of a playoff spot and could consider doing some buying. Seeing them go after a rental like Gallo would be surprising, though, as this is the first year of what the club hopes to be a multi-year competitive window. Players with a bit more control would be more obvious fits, though perhaps the Yankees are motivated enough to move on from Gallo that they package him with someone else or eat part of his salary. In the short-term, there’s certainly room for Gallo, given the club’s roster. The Rangers have been featuring an outfield mix of Adolis Garcia, Kole Calhoun, Brad Miller and Leody Taveras in recent days. Miller is having an even worse year than Gallo, slashing .210/.261/.347 for a wRC+ of 73. The club has also been featuring Mitch Garver at designated hitter most of the time, but he’s going to undergo season-ending surgery tomorrow.

There’s also the Padres, whose president of baseball operations A.J. Preller was in the Rangers’ front office when Gallo was drafted. They have been looking for outfield help for a while and have been snakebit by injuries to Wil Myers and Jurickson Profar. Nomar Mazara has stepped up and filled one spot admirably, but they’re still getting subpar production from Trent Grisham and Jose Azocar. Myers is nearing a return but was having a dismal campaign before landing on the injured list, meaning there’s no guarantee he’ll fix things once healthy. Despite those outfield struggles, the club is 49-37 and currently in possession of an NL Wild Card spot, making them clear deadline buyers.

There’s also the financial situation to consider with the Padres, as they are right up against the luxury tax and seem loath to cross it for a second straight year. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource calculates their CBT number to be $228.9, just shy of the $230MM first threshold. They have been trying to trade Myers and Eric Hosmer to get rid of some salary for quite some time, though without success thus far. They have also reportedly been considering trading a starting pitcher for the same reasons, with Blake Snell standing out as perhaps the most viable option. MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently took a detailed look at the situation. It would be a surprise for the Padres to create that breathing room and then use it on a dice roll like Gallo as opposed to someone currently having success. Though Preller has shown a tendency towards acquiring former Rangers like Profar, Mazara and Yu Darvish, meaning it can’t be completely discounted.

Mitch Garver To Undergo Season-Ending Forearm Surgery

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Rangers catcher Mitch Garver will undergo surgery to repair his injured flexor tendon on Monday morning, reports Levi Weaver of The Athletic. This surgery will wipe out the remainder of his season.

The fact that Garver requires the surgery isn’t shocking, as the issue has been known for some time. He has been playing through the injury, able to hit but not throw. He’s played exclusively as a designated hitter or pinch hitter over the past couple months, with his last appearance behind the dish coming on May 8.

Garver spoke to reporters about the situation a few weeks ago, noting that the surgery was inevitable. The only question was about the timing. Since the estimated recovery time for the surgery is 7-8 months, Garver and the Rangers had to decide on one of two courses of action. In one scenario, Garver would play out the remainder of the season hurt and then get surgery in the offseason. That would mean missing part of the 2023 campaign while recuperating. The second course of action would mean getting surgery sooner, in order to hopefully be fully healthy before next season. It seems they have now decided on the latter option.

This is surely a disappointing turn of events for the Rangers, who acquired Garver from the Twins in the offseason trade that sent Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Twins (who later traded him to the Yankees). Despite the injury, Garver has still been able to hit at an above-average rate, slashing .212/.292/.419 coming into tonight’s game. That amounts to a wRC+ of 103, or 3% above league average, but it’s a far cry from the .256/.358/.517 he put up last year, producing a 137 wRC+. He’ll now miss the final few months of the season while rehabbing.

The lack of Garver shouldn’t totally decimate the Rangers’ season, as Garver’s absence has been filled by the breakout season of Jonah Heim. Acquired from the A’s in the trade that sent Elvis Andrus to Oakland, Heim is hitting .257/.312/.480 on the year for a wRC+ of 125. When combined with his defensive contributions, he’s already produced 1.9 fWAR on the year.

Both Garver and Heim are still under team control next year, giving the club a powerful two-headed catching duo once Garver is healthy. Garver hits right-handed and Heim is a switch-hitter, making it possible that both of them get regular playing time in a platoon, with each of them also getting occasional turns as the designated hitter. Garver will be in his final season of control, making him a potential trade candidate in the offseason, with the club then turning the job over to Heim going forward. However, the uncertainty around Garver’s health will be an obstacle to the Rangers finding a deal to their liking.

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